The Tamale House

First off, this place has AMAZING pork tamales. (I would call them «red tamales» because I grew up in the southwest, and that’s how we differentiated them from green corn tamales) They are made fresh by the mom every morning and she’s been making tamales for twenty years. So, basically, they are about as authentic as they can be. And, by the way, you can purchase the tamales by the dozen. Just like that little Hispanic lady and her husband down the street sell.
Now for the second part. For the people who are going to the TAMALE house and taking points off because they don’t have «vegetarian bean options», please go purchase yourself a life. Let me add that anyone going to the TAMALE house and rating them for anything other than Pork Tamales needs to also purchase an upgraded life.
Folks, that’s what tamales are all about. Red pork tamales and, at Christmas, green corn tamales. Not chicken, not BBQ pork, not jalapeño and cheese. These are all tamales that have been introduced by well-​meaning gringos.
Oh, and although it should be obvious, the tamales here are completely gluten free.
So people, please stop rating a place based on things that somewhere called The TAMALE house doesn’t need to be good at. Ok? Oh, and the reason they sometimes run out of tamales is because they are made fresh each morning; the way real tamales should be made. Trust me, you want it to be that way.
For those of you who are still not happy, I hear that they sell tamales in a can down at the Grocery Outlet.

Had the chicken and pork tamales on a plate with rice and beans — I’m not normally a huge tamale fan but I thought these were delicious.

I had one chicken tamale & one jalapeño & cheese tamale. Both were pretty good, but there was only one type of sauce served with it. However, the sauce was good but I would have liked the option for a spicier sauce too. There were only 5 types of tamales to choose from which was semi-​disappointing. Not a huge selection of additional items either. The place was clean. I might go back but it’s doubtful. Wish there was a bigger selection.

I was excited to try this place. I fully expected the Tamale House to have a vegetarian bean option (beans made without lard)– they did not. My friend ordered nachos to share with me which were covered with fake cheese like the kind you see in 7 – 11 and a few meager avocado slivers, no guacamole. Disappointing. However, the green salsa was delicious as was my chile relleno. My highlight was gazing into the well-​kept saltwater aquarium.

This place honestly confuses me. I really wanted to like this place.
I absolutely love Tamales but they only have a few different kinds, which seems strange since they are *The Tamale House*. They were also small and they skimped on the cheese. Total bummer. I’m not really sure why this place is so mediocre, because they seem to have potential.
They are also open very strange hours and have been closed before during normal business hours, for seemingly no reason. I also went once and the young kid behind the counter told me they were out of one of their few kinds of tamales. Really?! You’re The Tamale House and you don’t have tamales?! Come on guys, I read other Unilocal reviews with the same complaints. This place seems very unprofessional and 3 stars is being generous. I only gave it 3 because I still like tamales, and would like to see this place get it together.
Good luck to you if you decide to eat here Unilocalers. I recommend you read other negative reviews.

So we finally were able to find a time when they were open. And boy did we regret the decision to come here. I got the suprema burrito (a $ 10 burrito that is just two burritos actually?) which was bland, lacked promised avocado, and stuffed with dry flavorless rice. The Carnitas had a horrendous freezer burnt taste which made me unable to finish my burrito. My girlfriend got a few smaller items, and all of them were mediocre to average. The bland icing on the bland cake was the $ 12 Posole, which we both agreed was (you guessed it) incredibly bland. $ 30+ later, I would NOT recommend coming here. Save your money and go to the taco truck down the street by the Car Toys and that motel 6 where everyone does meth. Or La Hacienda Real. They are both far and above better!

It’s really a bummer that this place is closed during business hours. No sign or explination. I love the pork tamales but I’ve been here 3 times during business hours and they have been closed. Any suggestions for good tamales in the area?

Had a tasty cheese and jalapeño tamale. While the jalapeños were the canned pickles sort, the flavoring was good, the Masa was perfectly seasoned, and the size of the tamale was generous. Made for a nice three dollar lunch.

Pricey for less than average flavor. I had high hopes, dashed.

I eat here weekly, and have searched the city for better tamales, but there are none. Nobody else seasons their meat, which makes for a very bland tamale. The Tamale House has the best pork tamales I’ve ever had, hands down. My only issues revolve around their hours. sometimes I think they just close when they’re out of tamales; I’ve shown up during business hours to find that they were closed already, which was only a huge disappointment because I love the food so much.

Their tamales are good. They are large and full of flavor. Don’t buy their plates. They put in one tamale, some burnt tasting refried beans, and a little bit of tasty rice… This for $ 7! There was no salsa or hot sauce or shredded lettuce or anything. Just a tamale, beans, and rice.

Insane! The blandest Mexican food ever and the rudest staff. The owner asked how my food was, and turned into a jerk when I told him my honest opinion. It was shocking the way I was treated. I nicely told him the meat was bland and was told I was crazy and to never come back. Wow! Wow! This place doesn’t deserve your money.

Worst tamales I’ve ever had, I ordered jalapeño and cheese. While eating these sad tamales, the owner of the establishment came in, visibly drunk, and told the teenage cashier to check on the salt water aquarium because it seemed the fish were sick. Then he proceeded to make the only other person in the restaurant uncomfortable because she thought the owner was a drunk patron. Hilarious, but not a place I want to eat at. Very bleak atmosphere.

Good food. Good price. Had the fajitas burrito and chicken tamale. Fajitas burrito was steak and bell pepper, freshly made to order and wrapped up in a tortilla with cheese, rice, and beans. The chicken tamale was perfect. Wish sour cream wasnt extra but their salsa was pretty yummy.
Husband had flautas, pork tamale, and carnitas taco. Flautas were chicken and perfectly done– crispy and topped with cheese and sour cream. The pork tamale had more spices than the chicken but my husband liked it. Me? Not so much. The carnitas taco was… Meh.
They had coke fountain drinks and we split a large. Overall, a great dinner for less than $ 25. And we had plenty to take home as well. Cant wait to come back!

Been eating their tamales at their Tigard branch for years. Always fantastic. But today was my first visit to this Beaverton location and first time trying something other than the Tamales. Wow!
First, this new location is very nice! (Close to Trader Joe’s in the Fred Meyer parking lot.) A little nicer and more modern and open feeling than the Tigard store. But the Tacos were absolutely delicious! A lot different than tacos I normally get at other places in town. And the taco sauce/​salsa that is on the tables is amazing as well. Beware however. The tacos are HUGE. Two of them would be plenty for most people. If you’re really hungry, maybe three.
Really satisfying meal. Will be coming back.

What waste of our time! Aaron apparently is struggling with communication. We called at 645pm asked to order 2 dozen tamales. Easy right. Well we were coming from Tigard because the other location was closing. We get no call. Nothing. We show up and they tell us they have 3 tamales. like are we serious? You have bad news and you have 3 tamales out of the 2 dozen that I ordered. I will not give my money to this business again. 1. Communication. 2. Take responsibility for your business. 3. If you can’t run a business right… Then don’t. Thanks for wasting our time Tamale house
So called back to talk to a manager/​owner. I was told that the person on the phone was the owner. «I am 18 years old and I run two restaurants» I ask about why we couldn’t have received a call before coming out to their restaurant. I was told «I don’t know what you’re talking about» and I said really?! I said we ordered two dozen tamales and we get there and our order couldn’t be fulfilled. He said. «I don’t know what to tell you.» Laughing. Unbelievable that this kid is the voice of a family business. We used them for our business and our family. Done.

OMG YUM! I’m so happy you guys are right down the street! YAY! A friend gave me a coupon for 1 dozen for $ 20.00 So I tried the Traditional Pork, Chicken & the Jalapeño cheese. Loved each one of them, smothered in that delicious salsa! OMG YES!!! I cannot wait to go back! I loved them so much made me want to be a closet eater, so I could keep eating them. Then I decided I’ll just forget the closet & eat it in your face.
I Loved it! :)

My first time here. I picked up the 12 tamales for $ 28. I wanted a mix, but they were out of the barbecued pork (they must be popular). So I ended up with pork and chicken. They were prompt getting them for me. In and out in less than. 5 minutes. They were still piping hot when I got them home. While the plain pork was good, the chicken was more spiced and very flavorsom. I’ll definitely be back.

There used to be a guy that went from business to business in downtown Beaverton selling homemade tamales that his wife made fresh that morning. My fiancé works in that area and would bring home the most wonderful, fresh (sometimes still warm) tamales. And then he was gone and I have craved good tamales ever since.
The Tamale House will go a long way toward filling that void. On my visit, I tried the 2 tamale plate with rice and beans ($ 9). The price seemed a little steep but it was a good amount of food. I tried one pork tamale and one chicken. The pork was a little dry and didn’t have as much flavor as the chicken. I’m not sure I’d get that one again, but it wasn’t bad at all. The chicken tamale was really, really good with soft masa and a lot of shredded chicken. It was definitely the better of the two. The beans and rice both had good flavor and tasted fresh.
The interior is rather small, resulting in a tight squeeze if you want to walk to the back and there happens to be someone at the front counter. So I’m not 100% sure if there were any sauces out, but I didn’t see any. That chicken tamale, + a little green sauce, would have gone from good to great.
This is well worth a visit and holds up nicely in comparison to other Mexican places in the area, if only for the speed of service and freshness. I will definitely be back to try a burrito too, but the chicken tamales will be calling my name for a while.

This location has been open for about a month now and I’ve finally decided to give it a try.
Despite being called the tamale house they actually have a menu full of Mexican food. You can look forward to ‘superior’ burritos, nachos, chile rellenos, flautas, enchiladas, taco salad (the best kind of salad), and even menudo.
I picked up one each of the pork and cheese/​jalapeño tamales. While ordering I thought the price was set a little high at two for $ 5.00 but, in retrospect, this was a good deal. The tamales are about 50% larger than most tamales I’ve seen in the area and two can be quite filling.
To top it all off, the food is really tasty and comes with a good ratio of stuffing to wrapping. This is an important element in any tamale because no one likes just eating a big ol’ chunk of cornmeal. And as if they needed anything else to bring me back, this place also sells grape/​uva fanta which as we all know is delicious.
The only room for improvement that I can see is a broadening hot sauce selection. The house blend has good flavour but it fell short in the heat department. But then again this place is fairly new and I’m sure they’ll have more offerings in the future. All in all this is a great little lunch stop and I encourage you to try it.